Durham Riverside Renewal

Milburngate is continuing its longstanding support of Lumiere with sponsorship of one the 2021 festival’s high-profile installations and the return of its pop-up street food market, ‘Milburngate Munch’.

The landmark development on Durham’s Riverside is sponsoring Drop Scene, by the artist Liz West which will be on display underneath Milburngate Bridge throughout Lumiere, which runs from 18 to 21 November and features 37 stunning installations throughout the city.

The title Drop Scene is taken from the theatrical meaning of the word, playing on the idea of a curtain and an unexpected vibrant “change of scenery” dividing the riverside from the underpass.

This work invites audiences to investigate their surroundings, basking in coloured light and the artwork is made up of a series of coloured corrugated panels, which creates a kaleidoscope of visuals underneath Milburngate Bridge.

Liz West is a British artist who graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2007. West’s broad body of work encompasses site-specific installations, sculpture, and wall-based artwork.

Once visitors have experienced Drop Scene, they can make their way to the ‘Milburngate Munch’ pop-up food market, which returns this year after proving so popular in 2019. Located at Milburngate next to the Radisson Hotel and the Penny Ferry Bridge on the River Wear, Milburngate Munch will be open to visitors throughout the light festival.

‘Milburngate Munch’ will bring together a collection of stalls operated by specially selected North East traders serving a range of quality hot food and drinks.

Complementing the wider food and drink offering across Durham City available to visitors during Lumiere, ‘Milburngate Munch’ is part of the continued support of the festival by the developers of the living, working and leisure destination, Arlington Real Estate and Richardson.

The Milburngate development team has been a key supporter of Lumiere since the very first festival in 2009 and Arlington Real Estate founder Allan Cook is both Chair of the Lumiere Development Board and also a Trustee of Artichoke, the production company responsible for delivering the festival.

Allan said: “We are proud to have played a part in bringing Lumiere to Durham all those years ago and seeing it go from strength to strength and I am keener than ever to help Artichoke make this Lumiere a success as it will bring some much-needed light and joy to the city following the challenges of the last 18 months. It will be wonderful to see the city glowing again with the vibrancy of excited visitors and of course the amazing installations.”

He added: “Its great to also bring back ‘Milburngate Munch’, which proved to be exceptionally popular with visitors to Lumiere in 2019. It was a hive of activity throughout the festival, and I am sure it will again prove to be a welcoming location for visitors to grab a drink and a bite to eat as they tour of the city.”

Helen Marriage, Artistic Director and CEO of Artichoke said: “It is thanks to the incredible support of County Durham’s business community, alongside Lumiere commissioners Durham County Council and the support of Arts Council England, Durham University and all our sponsors, that we are able to return to Durham once again to produce Lumiere. This year more than ever, the festival will not only be a moment to enjoy the spectacle and wonder of Durham transformed by light art, but to reflect on the last 18 months and celebrate life and renewal.”

ENDS

NEWS RELEASE: ISSUED ON BEHALF OF DURHAM RIVERSIDE

For further information contact Jamie Collis 01325 363436

Editors’ Notes:

Durham Riverside Renewal

The development consortium consists of Arlington Real Estate and Richardson.

The project includes the regeneration of Freemans Reach and the redevelopment of Milburngate House, which are on adjacent banks of the River Wear in the heart of Durham City.

According to the Sunday Times’ ‘Best Places to Live’:

“Durham is a lovely place to live. Beneath its glorious cathedral, you’ll find pretty cobbled streets stuffed with little independent shops and great watering holes, a beautiful river that carves its way through dramatic walls of rock and greenery, and some attractive house stock – along with a thriving buy-to-let market, thanks to all those students. One of the nicest places to live is South Street, which looks directly onto the cathedral and castle, and which inspired Sir Walter Scott. Many of its terraced houses are grade II listed; prices range from £400,000 to more than £1m.”

About Arlington Real Estate

Arlington Real Estate is also delivering another flagship County Durham development, DurhamGate. Located five miles south of Durham City, DurhamGate is on the site of Black & Decker’s former UK headquarters and, at almost 100 acres, it is among the largest regeneration projects in the North East of England

About Richardson

Richardson is a multi-generation family business with over half a century of real estate experience in the UK and overseas. Working across all sectors, they have developed well in excess of seven million square feet of property. Recent projects include Nickel, junction 28 off the M1, a new spec build 261,000 sq ft warehouse, Western 105, Avonmouth, a new spec build 105,500 sq ft warehouse, Freemans Reach, a 110,000 sq ft office development in Durham, Lincoln Gateway, a £28m, 519 bed student accommodation scheme. More recently the family has continued to expand its operations by building an international growth capital portfolio across a range of sectors through a direct and co-investment programme.

About Tolent

Tolent was formed in Tyneside in 1983. Since then we have amassed a huge variety of projects encompassing all types of building and civil engineering work in the public and private sectors.

One of Tolent’s greatest strengths is its versatility which enables us to deliver efficiency and excellence in projects of all sizes, whether they’re repair works valued at £5,000 or a £100 million contract for a flagship development.

About Liz West

Liz West creates vivid environments that mix luminous colour and radiant light. West aims to provoke a heightened sensory awareness in the viewer through her works. She is interested in exploring how sensory phenomena can invoke psychological and physical responses that tap into our own deeply entrenched relationships to colour.

West's investigation into the relationship between colour and light is often realised through an engagement between materiality and a given site. Our understanding of colour can only be realised through the presence of light. By playing and adjusting colour, West brings out the intensity and composition of her spatial arrangements.

West has been commissioned worldwide by institutions and organisations including Natural History Museum, National Trust, National Science and Media Museum, London Design Festival, Natural England, Allied London, Grosvenor, British Land, Salford University, Leftcoast, Allenheads Contemporary Arts and Bristol Biennial. West's work has been included in exhibitions at St Albans Museum + Gallery, University of Hertfordshire, Chester Cathedral, Compton Verney, Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces, Cornerhouse, Brunel University, Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre, UK Young Artists and Royal British Society of Sculptors in the UK, as well as internationally in Hyvinkää, Bangalore, Milan, Dubai, Paris, Berlin and New York. Permanent works are sited in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Salford and Bury.

Her work has been widely published including by Wallpaper*, FRAME Magazine, The Creator's Project, Design Boom, Huffington Post, Colossal, Thames & Hudson, Gingko Press, The World of Interiors, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent.